Current weather

ATLANTA – Gov. Nathan Deal’s office announced Friday afternoon that he had signed into law House Bill 1167, which allows voters to decide if they want to limit how long Columbia County commissioners can stay in office.

Ballots in November’s General Election will ask county voters if they want to hold the commissioners and chairman to two, four-year terms. If it passes, it will take effect in January, and would apply to sitting commissioners and those elected this year by preventing any of them to “succeed himself or herself in office more than once.”

A former Harlem High School ROTC teacher accused of having sex with a student was arrested Wednesday.

Mitchell Sivas, 57, was charged with sexual assault against a person in custody after his attorney brought him to the McDuffie County Law Enforcement Center at about 2:30 p.m., said Thomson Police Chief Joe Nelson.

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens will speak to the CSRA Republican Women’s Club meeting on Monday.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Jones Creek Clubhouse, 777 Jones Creek Drive in Evans. It is open to the public and membership is not required to attend.

Olens will discuss the recent U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act. President Barack Obama signed the statute, also known as Obamacare, into law on March 23, 2010.

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun announced Thursday that two Grovetown High School seniors have been appointed to America’s service academies.

John Russell Hintze received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., while Calvin Navarre Owens was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, according to a press release sent out by Broun’s office.

A Martinez man found hiding under a truck Monday morning is now facing a variety of charges.

According to a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office report, deputies were called to Southern Mechanical Inc., 3072 Damascus Road, around 4:30 a.m. Monday for an alarm activation. They discovered Todd Anthony Robert, 31, lying under a truck in a fenced-in area on the property.